Obama Lied, My Health Plan Died

Like an estimated 22 million other Americans, I am a self-employed small-business owner who buys health insurance for my family directly on the individual market. We have a high-deductible PPO plan that allows us to choose from a wide range of doctors.

Or rather, we had such a plan.

Last week, our family received notice from Anthem BlueCross BlueShield of Colorado that we can no longer keep the plan we like because of “changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA).” The letter informed us that “(t)o meet the requirements of the new laws, your current plan can no longer be continued beyond your 2014 renewal date.”

In short: Obama lied. My health plan died.

Remember? Our president looked America straight in the eye and promised: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also lied when she pledged: “Keep your doctor, and your current plan, if you like them.”

This isn’t just partisan business. It’s personal. Our cancellation letter states that Anthem is “not going to be selling new individual PPO plans.” When we asked whether we could keep our children’s doctors, an agent for Anthem told my husband and me she didn’t know. The insurer has no details available yet on what exactly they’ll be offering. We either will be herded into the Obamacare federal health insurance exchange regime (launching October 1), a severely limited HMO plan, or presented with costlier alternatives from another insurer. If they even exist.

My family is not alone. Across the country, insurers are sending out Obamacare-induced health plan death notices to untold tens of thousands of other customers in the individual market. Twitter users are posting their Obamacare cancellation notices and accompanying rate increases:

Linda Deright posted her letter from Regency of Washington state: “63 percent jump, old policy of 15 yrs. cancelled.” Karen J. Dugan wrote: “Received same notice from Blue Shield CA for our small business. Driving into exchange and no info since online site is down.” Chris Birk wrote: “Got notice from BCBS that my current health plan is not ACA compliant. New plan 2x as costly for worse coverage.” Small-business owner Villi Wilson posted his letter from HMSA Blue Cross Blue Shield canceling his individual plan and added: “I thought Obama said if I like my health care plan I can keep my health care plan.”

Few among Washington’s protected political class are paying attention, because they enjoy their lucrative government benefits and are exempted from Obamacare’s destructive consequences.

But one of my state’s congressional representatives, GOP Rep. Cory Gardner, also lost his individual market plan. Unlike most politicians on Capitol Hill, Gardner chose not to enroll in the federal health insurance program. He told me that he opted to participate in the private market “because I wanted to be in the same boat as my constituents. And now that boat is sinking!”

Gardner points to recent analysis showing individual market rate increases of 23 percent to 25 percent in Colorado. “After my current plan is discontinued,” he wrote last week, “the closest comparable plan through our current provider will cost over 100 percent more, going from roughly $650 a month to $1,480 per month.” He now carries his Obamacare cancellation notice with him as hardcore proof of the Democrats’ ultimate deception.

Maryland announced that its post-Obamacare individual market rates could also rise by a whopping 25 percent. The National Association for the Self-Employed is recommending that its small-business owners and freelancers plan for at least a 15 percent increase nationwide. One of the reasons for those rate hikes, of course, is that Obamacare’s mandated benefits provisions force insurers to carry coverage for items that individual market consumers had deliberately chosen to forgo.

Americans who had opted for affordable catastrophic coverage-style plans now have fewer and fewer choices. This includes a whole class of musicians, photographers, artists, writers, actors and other creative people who purchased health plans through the individual market or through small professional organizations. As St. Vincent College arts professor Ben Schachter reports in the Weekly Standard, groups like the College Art Association, Modern Language Association and the Entertainment Industry Group Insurance Trust are dropping their plans. Young, healthy members of these groups “are far more likely to see their rates go up — or to face the individual mandate penalties.”

Thanks to Obama, access is down. Premiums and health care spending are up. Research and development on lifesaving drugs and medical devices are down. Hours and benefits have been cut because of Obamacare costs and regulatory burdens by at least 300 American companies, according to Investor’s Business Daily. And the Obamacare layoff bomb continues to claim victims.

Obamacare is destroying the private individual market for health insurance by design, not accident. For hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of self-employed job creators, three fundamental Obamacare truths are becoming as clear as Obama’s growing nose: 1) You can’t keep it. 2) We’re screwed. 3) The do-gooders don’t care.

I disagree with Michelle about the “do-gooders.” Yes, they don’t care, but they never intended to go any good. Power is the only value in their calculus. If half of us died because of Obamacare, they wouldn’t care. The people who imposed this on the nation are the very definition of evil doers.

How long will it take for an alternative private health care system to begin? Black Market health care is right around the corner.

Guy Fromage

Black Market health care is right around the corner.

I’ve read tales of Canadian parents attempting to bride vets to do CT or MRI scans on their children, because they worried that the months and months wait for “care” under their socialistic system would delay urgent treatment.

defcon 4

What a depressing thought.

https://www.facebook.com/duke.mantee.77 Duke Mantee

I’m waiting for the new business coming to America… The private/exclusive Health Spa Country Club. They’ll have their own doctors and nurses on staff. Sure it will cost a little more but at least it will stop you from having to go to a hospital that’s run like a dollar store.

http://eacafe.blogspot.com/ Oo_oc_oO

“Busybodies” might be a better term.

Aizino Smith

The run up to October 1st and the actual day are just the start. Just wait until these people actually start paying the premiums or using Obama care.

The run up to the 2014 elections will be stressful especially for Obama if current trends in Obama Care polls hold.

http://libertyandculture.blogspot.com/ Jason P

My plan is gone also thanks to Obama and Andrew Cuomo. Let’s get some perspective on the numbers.

In New York State, out of 20 million people, 17 million get health insurance through their employment and 17 thousand buy individual plans. Yes, only one in a thousand buys individual plans. Most won’t notice the change … yet.

In NYS the cost is expected to go down (unlike other states). To achieve this PPO plans are eliminated and only HMO plans are allowed. But these HMO plans aren’t like the HMO plans the employers offer their employees. Because of the low payouts, the majority of hospitals and doctors are not participating in these plans. The cost will be kept down by keeping down quality and quantity of health services.

LIke I said, only 1 in a 1000 will notice. Let’s remember, however, that Obama ultimately wants to reduce all healthcare services. The tax on “Cadillac plans” is to discourage quality healthcare. The “disparity” in care is a threat to his egalitarian aims. An attack on employer-sponsored plans has started and will continue as will his attack on senior care until we all get equally shabby heath care services … like in Cuba. Get it now?

It doesn’t “seek to reduce quality,” but there is a component that seeks to reduce quantity through wellness and prevention. One of the strengths of having everyone insured is that the guy who needs the simple medication/treatment GETS IT, thus avoids the condition getting worse, thus avoids the drain of resources and outrageous costs of the inevitable emergency room visits/hospitalization.

On top of that, once EMRs become easier to use, they’re going to help introduce more efficiencies on the provision side. Administration is already more efficient, but it’s still at the point of any new software implementation.

davarino

Yes, we do have the right to defund this monstrosity. It was jammed down our throats without being able to read it and discuss it, and now our only redress is to defund it and eventually repeal it. Then Obama will have wasted our time for 8 whole years with nothing to show for it. He has worked to enflame the middle east. Our enemies and our allies dont respect us or trust us. The economy is in shambles with no end in site. And now we are supposed to just lie down and take this “law” that was foisted on us by the ruling class? I dont think so

Steven Newman

The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power…. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?

Who wrote this?? — George Orwell in his book, “1984”

Who seems to be using it as stated to force us to our knees?? The “National Socialist” Democrats!

When the “National Socialist” Democrats achieve a literal death-grip power over the lives of all our people, that is when they also achieve their long-cherished dream of absolute power and a “Democratic” dictatorship. In this case a medical dictatorship because EVERYTHING can and WILL be tied to healthcare!

Boogie’s Daddy

To those who didn’t work had nothing it seems like they are gaining a lot. To those who know what they had earned and lost it’s not so rosy.

Jeremy Chante Reese

Exactly, I’m seeing that I may want to stay out of the US… Why the fuck did I join the Army, because the AHA isn’t it.

WW4

You have government-provided Veterans Care. People are happy with that.

objectivefactsmatter

“You have government-provided Veterans Care. People are happy with that.”

1) Not all government health programs are equal.

2) Jeremy has employer provided coverage, not government provided coverage.

Mo86

Sadly not even the reality will wake up some people. I really, really thought it would.

Someone in my family was told their hours would be cut because of this situation. I told them, “Welcome to Obamacare!”

Instead of agreeing, she said it wasn’t the fault of Obama or Obamacare. It was because of “greedy corporations”

I’m barely PT employed. I’ve no health care insurance and haven’t seen a doctor (or dentist or eye doctor) in YEARS. How are they going to FORCE me to pay for insurance when I have no money? How?

I just don’t know what to do anymore.

mattogilvie55

The Obama-worshippers have already developed their talking point for rebuttal, and your family member just repeated it almost word for word:
The greedy corporations are merely using Obamacare to screw their employees.”
In other words, the cause of health insurance rates going up under Obamacare has already been blamed on corporate greed, not Obama.
Can we PLEASE start playing Cowboys and Liberals now?

Mo86

It’s horrifying.

I guess I’m the naive one. I was the one that thought once the reality hits them personally, it HAS to wake them up!

CurmudgyOne

Reality will never hit them. They shift the blame. They are permanently asleep. Besides that, those on welfare and getting food stamps will get a pass on healthcare costs too and we’ll even end up paying their IRS fines.

Mo86

Oh, dear God, I hadn’t thought of that. I am STILL paying off my state taxes from this year! And I only work barely part time!

laura rubin

i have a question: didnt corps always use P/T workers? the reason was the same, to get away from paying medical insurance. as for freelance people, its horrible that the private companies take the insurance away.

Boogie’s Daddy

Haven’t corporations always used part time employees? Some yes, some no. Corporations are not a single entity and they do not operate in unison.
Corporations are in business to make money. Some take care of their employees as well. If a business doesn’t actually need someone full time they should not be required to cover them like they would a full time employee.
I do know that Microsoft did, and others have, hired scores of “part time” workers (barely under the minimum hour requirement for “full time”) instead of the required number of full timers to avoid coverage and full time wage scales.
Microsoft and the others take a huge PR hit when they get caught acting like this. That, in the end costs them money.
On the other side of the coin Government takes money from both full and part time workers and gives them next to nothing in return.
If regulations were lifted on interstate competition for private insurance companies health care would be much more affordable for everyone who has the brains to make the deal and the will to work.

WW4

Mo86, if you’re really asking: it depends.

If you have no money, you get Medicaid. Not great, but better than nothing, and with more enrollees paying in could improve in time.

If you have some money, you will qualify for subsidy, and shop for plans. There are a lot of calculators at the exchange sites to find out what you qualify for. HSAs are another thing to look into especially for dental/eye.

It’s the part-timers and uninsured who will actually see the most benefit in the short run. Any local insurance agent can walk you through your options or at the very least direct you to someone who can.

About the only silver lining in the ACA is a voters’ backlash that will likely put Republicans in a position to cut its roots, if not dismantle it beyond recognition.

Guy Fromage

This worry is one of the motivators for “immigration reform.” Legions of new dim voters will be needed, when a great many fence-sitters and inertial dims are snapped out of the slumber-haze by the upcoming mass mugging.

defcon 4

Democraps will have to insure voter ID laws aren’t passed or enforced. To insure a proper outcome in the 2016 election.

WW4

That’s right: voters can decide whether or not they like the ACA. Maybe this time the Republicans will have an alternate plan. Not saying they didn’t before–they just didn’t like when Congress adopted theirs.

De Doc

You just knew that when it kicked in, the little guy was going to take it in the rump. And meanwhile in DC those rats felt themselves too important to be part of this Titanic scenario.

patron

Pennsylvania lowest cost health insurance:
Used to be $73. Now $200.

I never used it. When I did see a doctor, the attitude I got was “What the hell are you doing here? You’re healthy.”

I just kept it in case I got run over crossing the street by an illegal immigrant, or shot by an Obama voter.

Great boom for the insurance companies and hospitals. It’s like QE, except now insurance adjusters and hospital administrators get paid to kill old people for doling out drugs to fat drug addicts who vote Democrat.

Jim Reed

We are no longer a nation of freedom. Let freedom no longer ring. We are closer to communism/fascism/socialism and we, like others in history, seem to want it.

now we are joining other advanced civilized countries–call it what you like… Conservatives are such cowards and fear mongerers: they are afraid of gay people getting married or serving in the military; they are afraid of bringing terrorists to super max prisons in the US from which no one has ever escaped; they are afraid of the boy scouts letting gay kids in; they are afraid of everyone voting and are constantly suppressing the vote under some bogus voter fraud theory; they are afraid of letting students vote at their universities; they are afraid of women having the right to choose; they even are afraid of women getting contraception [the real issue actually is a women’s agency and control over their bodies]; they are afraid of mandating gun purchasers to undergo background checks for crazy people and terrorists; they are afraid of people smoking pot; they are afraid of climate change being real and contradicting their beloved Bible; they are afraid of legitimate campaign reform; they are afraid of Muslims; they are afraid of blacks; they are afraid of atheists; they are afraid of hippies; they are afraid of socialists; they are afraid of immigration reform leading to citizenship because they are afraid of– name whatever reason; they are probably still afraid of monsters under their beds;

objectivefactsmatter

“now we are joining other advanced civilized countries–call it what you like..’

Oh great. Anything you say. Are we winners now?

“Conservatives are such cowards and fear mongerers: they are afraid of gay people getting married or serving in the military;”

Labeling it “fear” is just a mendacious way for you to avoid the argument. Gays can already “get married.” We just call it something else to distinguish between customary child producing couples and radicals that want to destroy civilization. It’s not really about what people do on their own, it’s about mandating acceptance. It’s about thought control and control of speech and right of association. But communists don’t understand freedom until their allies turn on them for the same sorts of things.

“…they are afraid of bringing terrorists to super max prisons”

Just say that conservatives are “afraid” of being stupid leftist doosh-bags. Our opposition to communism is totally fear based AND that fear must be irrational too.

By the way, i did not fail to notice your prolific copy paste efforts. Get a real job.

At least you’ve outed yourself as a blatant communist.

It would be funny to see your resume. Only megalomaniacal tyrannical politicians and their dupes think that communism is a good idea. I doubt you’re one of the elites, which makes you a simpleton and a dupe.

Boogie’s Daddy

This just in from Senater Patty Murray (-WA)
“Last week, I spoke on the Senate floor about the irresponsible Tea Party threats to shut down the federal government if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not repealed. I shared the story of Nikki Mackey, a woman I met last month in Seattle, who is fighting breast cancer. Nikki was laid off from her job in the midst of the recession and just nine months later was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of breast cancer.”
Let’s remember that the “midst of the ‘recession'” happened around the midst of Setoro’s third year in office. Her layoff is the result of Obama’s and by extention Murray’s destructive policies.
Let’s remember that the Continuing Resolutions that she mentioned later in the same email as forcing government from “crisis to crisis” is due to Obama, Murray and the rest of the Democrat held senate failing to submit a single budget, as required by law, since he took office.
Let’s remember that the House each year has dutifully submitted workable budgets that were killed in the Senate and that the currently passed House bill would actually fund ALL of the government except the train wreck which is The “Affordable Care Act”.
Let’s remember that it is the Democrats and the Obama administration that is forcing a government shutdown.

WW4

Maybe Nikki Mackey should have just died. That would have made her a better poster child for your side.

Democrats and Obama are “forcing a shutdown” only in the sense that they want the law they passed and that the Supreme Court upheld to proceed. What you are saying is like saying “We forced the hostages to remain captive because we refuse to negotiate with the terrorists.”

You guys are playing way, way dumb politics right now. There a re a few grown ups in the GOP who get that, but not enough.

He should have since he helped create it. He should have had backup plans for the programs he argued for. He else knows the risks of a project but the chief advocates and architects?

He didn’t just parachute in to the USA for the 2008 presidential elections. Not only that but he’s intensifying focus on all the things that make our economy falter. Not just socialist giveaways, but socialist tactics to discredit (through destruction) the very idea of (free market) “capitalism.”

So yeah, it’s not just about the poor guy who took the wheel at an inopportune time. Try that somewhere else. He clearly in 2013 has learned nothing productive from any history, before his arrival and during his tenure in office.

Let’s remember the Government can’t FUND anything, They are in debt 16 trillion and counting.

Boogie’s Daddy

Our local family owned feed store tells me their group health premiums are going up $600.00 a month.

Jeremy Chante Reese

My personal health care in the middle east is $20 a month, the same plan would be $600 in the US.

Rachel Sargent

My husband got laid off in January, he finally got a job in July but the
insurance premium was too high so we decided to look for individual
health insurance. Even worse. You pay less but still have a deductible
on labs and they won’t cover me for maternity or diabetic meds until
2014. Talk about “reproductive rights.” They’re punishing me for
wanting to get pregnant.

WW4

Right now, it’s worse for people in your situation. Insurance companies are hedging, essentially. But under the ACA all plans are required to provide for maternity care and your medication. Seriously–look into your options, now.

stephencarter

The worst president ever. Rumor is he wants to be the first billionaire ex-President. What an absolute p.o.s.

stephencarter

Why are the Republicans supporting this monstrosity, against the wishes of a majority of Americans? Have they made a deal with Obama that the windfall of cash to the government that ACA promises will be used to retire some of the government debt? I can see Obozo making that ‘promise’, and I can also see the Republicans being stupid enough to believe him. Who hasn’t this president betrayed?